best medication for anxiety and insomnia

The researchers analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, conducted every two years. He also says a greater awareness of the importance of sleep to general health played a critical role. Kaufmann believes there are multiple reasons for the rise, including direct-to-consumer marketing, particularly with the emergence of Ambien in the early 1990s. An earlier study by some of the same researchers found that prescriptions for benzodiazepines, or BZDs, a class of drugs to treat anxiety and insomnia that includes diazepam (Valium) and alprazolam (Xanax), and non-BZDs, a similar class of medications including zolpidem (Ambien), climbed 69% and 140%, respectively, between 19.

The study’s observed trend stands in marked contrast to the rapid rise of sleep medication use and prescribing in previous decades. “…there also is a risk with having untreated insomnia.” There are highly effective behavioral treatments available that are growing in popularity.” “A number of medical organizations, advocacy groups, and policymakers have also strongly discouraged the use of these drugs to treat insomnia due to potential adverse outcomes associated with their use. “We’ve seen de-prescribing initiatives,” he adds. “I was surprised and encouraged by the results because there’s been a great deal of effort to minimize the long-term use of these pharmaceutical agents,” says public health researcher Christopher Kaufmann, an assistant professor in the University of Florida College of Medicine’s department of health outcomes and biomedical informatics and a member of the university’s Institute on Aging. The study showed an 86% decrease in this group. The drop-off is particularly noteworthy for Americans over age 80, who are most susceptible to falls leading to injury when using sleep medications. (It remains to be seen how the COVID-19 pandemic might have impacted this trend.) The study in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine documented a 31% decline in the use of common sleep medications between 20, a trend thought to be linked to a greater awareness of the potential pitfalls posed by these prescriptions. The use of medication to treat sleep disturbances has fallen dramatically in the United States in recent years after several decades of climbing steeply, according to new research.

Best medication for anxiety and insomnia